FILM REVIEW: Persepolis

This deceptively simple animated film sheds heartfelt light on the misunderstood people living within the 'Axis of Evil'

Sony Pictures Classics Marjane, center, listens to Siamek, second from left, in a scene from the film "Persepolis."

THREE STARS: The characters in "Persepolis" are simply drawn by animators, in basic black and white. They're Iranian, although judging from their appearance and mannerisms and worries and cares, they could be anyone in the world.

This, of course, is why "Persepolis" is an animated motion picture, not live action -- to show that everyone, even those with an address in the Axis of Evil, is essentially the same, that the eradication of freedoms chafes us all, no matter which god we worship, and etc.

"Persepolis," named for the Persian capital founded in the sixth century B.C. by Darius I that was destroyed by Alexander the Great, is a foreign-language film currently playing in Manhattan, where it's destined to remain.

We're reviewing it here because otherwise the first two weeks of January are among the bleakest of the year for new film releases, but also because this picture will likely receive an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language feature, if not the award itself.

In a cinematic environment full of well-intentioned movies made to remind us that the world is a harsh place right now, and determined to shame us if we're so naive as to go about our business without appearing to care, "Persepolis" is a breath of fresh air.

It's a heartbreaking story about a sweet girl who grows up to be a rebellious teenager, then a sad young woman, in a country that watches as one bad leader (the shah) is replaced by a far worse one (the ayatollah), and is then ravaged by an eight-year war with its neighbor (Iraq).

It's the real-life tale of Marjane Satrapi, whose two graphic novels about the same subject were a big hit in the artist's adopted nation of France.

"Persepolis" may on the surface be a story about a nation imploding in on itself, but beneath that it's a tale about exile, about a woman who's forced to turn her back on not only her country and culture, but her family, and a grandmother she knows she will never see again as soon as she turns around to get on the plane.

Stories about exile may not seem inherently American, unless we were to take the time to hear the stories of some of our neighbors. But Marjane's struggles to dress the way she wants to, to listen to the heavy metal music of Iron Maiden if she wants without being called to the carpet for it, somehow seem intimately familiar.

Only while we're made to fear our parents or teachers, Marjane must fear for her life, and that of her family.

Written and directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, "Persepolis" may have a quaint look about it, but the animation is deceptively simple. Its images leave impressions that, were this a live-action flick, could've come across as heavy-handed.

And the movie is far from humorless, far from it. It's a reassuring reminder that we have a tremendous capacity to adapt, and to find the good amongst so much bad.

Satrapi has told her life story, both on the page and now on the big screen, to show us in the West that Iran is not a monoculture of fanaticism and terror. Perhaps. It's an argument that applies to some countries more than others, and there can be no denying that the Persians have acquiesced to the rule of Islamic fundamentalists for a few decades now without concerted efforts to rise up.

But "Persepolis" does serve as a bright, heartfelt light on a corner of the world we don't really understand, and a people who aren't so different from us.